Ephesians 2:4-5
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved”
The redemptive story of the gopsel is found so beautifully written by God here in Ephesians 2. The chapter begins by first showing us who we are without Christ. It is so important for us to acknowledge and accept the nature of man without Christ. If we didn’t, we fail to understand the gospel.
No one likes to talk about the sin nature of man. We love to talk about how gracious and loving God is, but bring up sin or our depravity, and people get angry and shy away. But honestly, this isn’t just important, it IS the gospel. This is how we understand the graciousness and lovingness of God.
Without the verses just before Ephesians 2:4-5, the sweetness of these verses wouldn’t be sweet. If we don’t understand the depth at which we need Christ’s work on the cross, it will easily just become an added bonus to our lives, a pillow to bring us comfort, and nothing more. Jesus didn’t come to die just to bring us comfort.
This is not truth. This is not the gospel. Without verse 1-3, verses 4-5 are pointless.
We have to look at these beautiful verses in context with verses 1-3.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” Ephesians 2:1-3
We were by nature children of wrath, fully against God. Sinful. Depraved. Dead.
Sisters, we didn’t need Jesus to come and shed his blood on the cross to be a friend. We didn’t need Jesus to come to help to clean up our lives to make them look better. We needed Jesus to come to bring us back from the dead!
We were dead in our sin. We couldn’t make ourselves alive. There was nothing we could do to bring about life in our dead souls.
But God. The two most beautiful words in this entire chapter. Because of His love, despite being dead in sin, MADE US ALIVE with Christ.
This is grace my friends, this is the gospel.
We were dead in our sin, but God loved us, and sent Christ to come to live the sinless life we couldn’t live, to make us alive with Him.
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